Jenna Bush Hager admitted that she and her twin sister, Barbara, “broke down in tears” when their father, George W., told them he had made the decision to run for president of the United States of America.
During Tuesday’s episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna, the latter was joined by fill-in host Sheinelle Jones and was talking about her upcoming guest, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and her new memoir when Jenna, 42, decided to share the anecdote.
“She has a story, and I’m going to tell you before she gets here because it’s on my conscience,” Jenna told Sheinelle, 46.
‘So she writes about when she was on President Obama’s shortlist to become a potential Supreme Court justice, she and her husband sat down with their daughters – she has two little girls – and they said, “Listen, this is going to change your lives and I want to make sure you’re on board.” And they said, “Yes, Mom, this has been your dream, we believe in you.”
She continued: ‘Well, I have a similar story… unfortunately, when I was 16, my father sat my sister and I down and said, “Listen, we really want your support. I’d like to run for president.”
Jenna Bush Hager revealed that she and her sister “broke down in tears” when their father, George W., told them he had made the decision to run for president.
Jenna photographed with her twin sister, Barbara, and her parents, George W. and Laura, in 1997.
Her co-host Sheinelle asked, “What did you say?” and Jenna revealed, “We just started crying! Like only twins can do, we cried in unison. We were like, ‘No, you’re going to ruin our lives, Dad.’ And then we were like, ‘And even if you run, you’re going to lose.'”
“Well, that didn’t happen,” Sheinelle replied as Jenna joked, “Well, it was close! We pursued it anyway, and as adults we’ve since publicly apologized. That was awful.”
Of course, George W. won the November 2000 election and served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009.
Of course, there was a lot of interest in Jenna and her brother’s personal lives, and in 2001, the twins were caught underage drinking during their freshman year of college, just months after their father took over.
The twins have been candid about being caught for underage drinking and even wrote about it in their 2017 memoir, Sisters First.
Jenna was a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin when she was first stopped by police for drinking a beer at a club in April 2001 and pleaded not guilty to a charge of underage possession of alcohol that same month.
He was ordered to pay $51.25 in court costs while performing eight hours of community service, and also had to attend an alcohol awareness class.
The following month, Barbara, who was a student at Yale University, was visiting Jenna in Austin when they were arrested for trying to buy alcohol at Chuy’s, a Mexican restaurant chain.
The family of four pictured arriving at the White House in November 2004 during George Bush’s term as president.
Jenna and Barbara, pictured here in 1997, were caught underage drinking during their freshman year of college.
Jenna photographed leaving the White House with her father in July 2004.
This happened after the manager notified the restaurant authorities to report that a group of individuals who did not appear to be 21 years old were ordering alcoholic beverages.
Barbara had already been notified when police arrived and was charged with underage possession, while Jenna was turned away for using an ID that belonged to someone else who was of legal drinking age.
The incident landed them both on the cover of weekly magazines.
Jenna recalled on the Today show in 2022 that her father ended up apologizing to her and her sister after telling the First Daughters they could be “normal” in college.
“The fact that we thought we could do that just speaks to how (our parents) were like, ‘Oh, you can be normal, it’s okay,'” she said, admitting it was a “stupid” thing for her and her sister to do as public figures while underage.
“When I called my dad and said, ‘I’m so sorry… I got this ticket for underage drinking,’ he said, ‘No, I’m sorry.'”
‘We embarrassed our parents, but they would never say it. He said, “I’m sorry, I told you that you can be normal and you can’t. You can’t order margaritas.”